


A Small Price to Pay

by fab_jhammy



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: How Do I Tag, Slow To Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 01:06:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16052291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fab_jhammy/pseuds/fab_jhammy
Summary: Acnologia never expected to see Anna Heartfilia ever again, yet here she is, right in front of him, 400 years later.Does not follow canon, well to a point.





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by unashamed-shipper from Tumblr. They gave me permission to expand on their little fic. Enjoy!

It all started four hundred years ago or so.  The dragons were going rampant, and as a dragon slayer, it was my duty to protect the country from those creatures.  Little did I know, I would become one of those creatures, and then I met _her_ , Anna Heartfillia.

 

**~*Flash-Back*~**

 

I was battling one of the toughest dragons.  It seemed like hours, no more like days until the battle was finished.  Taking off the blood from my sword by sticking it into the bloodied ground, wasn’t one of my best ideas, but, it was better than nothing.  _I’ll clean it when I get back to camp._   As I made my way there, I heard a cry.  Not the cry of tears but a cry for help.  I started to walk, no run, towards the sound.  My feet, though weary as they were, began to go faster.  What was even more astounding was that even as tired to the bones as I was, I managed to reach the location of the crying in a matter of minutes.

 

When I looked for the person who gave the cry, I couldn’t see anything at first.  There was just so much dust and debris of the collapsed buildings and temples that it was hard to find her at first.  I stopped for a minute, gathering my bearings then listened for the cry again.  It was coming from the old temple of the Zodiac deities.  I began my search, listening for any sign of life, or another cry.  Then I heard it, a small, tiny voice call out, “over here.  Please, help.  Please, I know someone is there.  Please, quickly.”  Between each little phrase was a gasp of pain.  I drew closer and I could smell the coppery scent of blood.  I breathed in deeper to get a sense of where the voice was coming from and how bad the wounds were.

 

I reached the location of where the crying came from.  When I took in our surroundings, I noticed a few things.  One, the person who was crying is a woman.  Two, she was young, eighteen or nineteen years old, a little younger than me.  Three, there was blood on her face and hands, weather it was hers or not, I couldn’t tell.  The final one, the woman had two companions with her, both unconscious.  One with blue hair the other with dark aburn hair.  But the most astounding thing was the woman’s hair.  Golden.  She looked like an angel, fallen from the heavens and only the ruble of the ruins to catch her descent.  She was utterly beautiful.  No, beautiful didn’t even describe what she was, or how she looked.  Her cough brought me out of my wandering thoughts and back to the situation at hand.  “Err, sorry.  Let me get these out of the way, and help you three.”  As I made my way over to pick up what seemed like one of the heaviest pillars, there was a golden light that flashed.  At the light, I turned, ready for an attack, but one never came.

 

“Never fear, my queen.  I shall help you.”  The voice came from a man.  He was dressed as one of nobility, but spoke as if he were in service to someone.  His clothes seemed to be made from the finest silks, he had a fur lined coat, and elaborate rings upon his fingers.  Though his fingers were dainty, you could tell that there were calluses from hard work and labor.  The noble-man went to help the golden woman out of the ruble.  I continued on with what I was doing, when I felt a hand on my shoulder.  Turning, I go into a fighting stance as to attack the person behind me, but before my fist was able to connect with their face, they dodged it, almost as if they were expecting it.  “Woah, my friend, no need to start a fight that you will lose.”  The man smiled.  I don’t know whether it was to mock me, or if he was genuinely smiling, and saying he wasn’t a threat to me.  At the look on my face, he had the audacity to laugh.  To _laugh_!  “I’m only kidding you my friend.  Here, no need to go and pick up the largest piece of ruins, the ladies are only surrounded by smaller pieces than the one you’re looking, or glaring at, right now.”

 

He started walking towards the women, and as I looked, I noticed that he indeed was correct in saying that there were smaller pieces of ruble than I thought.  As we began clearing the ruins away from the three women, the air started to clear, and the sky beginning to darken.  “We need to hurry.  Though it is still fairly light out, we need to move.”  My words spurred the man on, and we wordlessly continued to dig the women out.  As soon as we finished, I stood and sighed.  “We may have to set up a camp here, for it is almost too late to return to my base.”  I looked over my shoulder to see the man placing the women into a cart.  “What are you doing?  Where did you get the cart?”  Questions were coming and going into my mind and making me sputter and stutter out incoherent words.

 

“Slow down on your questions.  I’ll answer them, now first let us be off to your base.  I think I have the general idea of where it is, but you’ll have to give me precise directions.”  He lifted the handles of the cart and started to where the end of the city was.  “Now, to answer your first question, I’m putting the women into this cart to help transport them to your base.  The answer to your second question is it came from the Realm of the Stars.  Or as it is better known as the Celestial Spirit World.  Don’t give me that look.  I am Leo, the leader of the Twelve Zodiacs, and personal friend of Anna Heartfillia.”  As the man continued speaking, the only thing on my mind was Anna.  _Anna Heartfillia, yes, she is the one.  The one that completes me.  My mate._

 

Although Anna is my mate, I didn’t realize that her descendent, Lucy Heartfillia, would look exactly like her and have the same exact scent.


	2. How We Met

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short chapter, and I apologize, but please enjoy!

The last thing I remembered was cleaning the temple, then a sudden crash as the buildings surrounding the temple fell.  Not long after, the temple fell as well.  I was with two of my closest friends, Lady Caroline Alberona, and Lady Vivienne McGarden.  Both were beautiful in their own way.  Caroline has the most beautiful auburn hair.  Dark, rich and when the light hits her hair, you can see the gorgeous red hints to it.  Vivienne has cerulean hair.  The type of color you would see in the clearest ocean.  Both women had a tinkling laugh, as if they were wind chimes or little bells.  Caroline is one of the high priestesses at the temple of Fortuna.  She, Caroline, is a fortune-telling mage.  One of the strongest of the psychic mages, for that is why she is the high priestess.  Vivienne, my best friend, the official scribe and investigator of the temple of Osiris.  If Osiris were here now, I’m certain that Vivienne would be his favorite.  For Vivienne, knowledge is almost everything.  Though she may not look it, she can hold her own, her magic, I must say is lively, she can make words come to life.  Solid Script mage is what she uses, and she always says that she isn’t very strong.  I, and many others, disagree with her.

 

And here we lay, waiting for someone to come and rescue us.  I was the only one conscious at the time, Vivienne and Caroline were ‘down for the count’.  Surrounding us were the ruins of the Zodiac temple, and the only thing that remained of the temple was the statue of the Spirit King with twelve golden zodiac signs on his crown, along with the other eighty-eight constellations clustered around him.  Finally being able to see little shapes around me, and gaining my breath, I cried out, “over here.  Please, help.  Please, I know someone is there.  Please, quickly.”  Between each phrase I was able to gasp out, was a brush of pain going down my chest.  Most of my torso was being blocked my large pieces of stone, luckily nothing was crushing me nor my friends.

 

I heard his footsteps before I saw or heard him speak.  But when I first heard his voice, gravelly and oh so deep, wrought with power, and undeniably sexy.  His voice almost made me melt.  And once he came into my line of sight, the little breath I had that was in my lungs, came rushing out in a gasp which turned into a cough.  I knew he was speaking and I could hear him saying words, but those words didn’t register in my mind.  It was just his gruff, melodic voice.  He started walking towards us again.  His steps slow, deliberate and careful, as if not to disturb the ground or my friends behind me.  As soon as he reached the pillar that was above us, there was a golden light, signaling the arrival of a Celestial Spirit.  With the light being golden, I could tell it was a Zodiac.  The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was the sight of Leo, leader of the Zodiac helping our savior getting us out of the ruins of the temple, then nothing.  Yet, I felt every movement made by both men.  What seemed like seconds, or maybe hours later, I felt myself being placed into a wagon or cart of some-sort, and we were off, to Spirit King only knows where…


	3. Healer's Tent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know another short chapter, but it's a chapter! FYI all of these chapters are from my fanfiction.net account, but are being placed here on AO3. Please enjoy, and comments/kudos feed me!

After an hour of walking and switching places to wheel the girls, we reached the camp.  Rousing the women from their sleep, we made our way to the healer’s tent.  “Ladies, we’re here at my camp.”  Nudging them, and helping them to sit up and get their bearings of where we were at.  The first to fully rise and climb out of the cart was the blonde-haired woman.  Although she stumbled getting out, and swayed uneasily on her feet, she managed to stand.  Griping the cart she made her way to her friends, shaking them on their shoulders, and lightly tapping their faces, the blue and brown haired women groaned and finally were cognitive.  The Celestial Spirit and I walked around the cart to the women, Leo, gently picked up the blue-haired, and I the brown-haired and carried them to the tent,  Anna following close behind.

Once inside the tent, we set the women on to two separate pallets.  Anna going off to find an extra one to lay down herself.  As they lay there, each with an expression of pain, or a firm set of their jaw, trying to hide the pain, the healer walked in.  “Ah, Acnologia, what brings you here?  And you have guests?  What a pleasant surprise.”  But by the expression on Healers face, even if it was a smile, the look in his eyes was a different story, Acnologia could tell that Healer was not in a pleasant mood.  Healer looked down, seeing the injured women, and gave a gasp of shock.  “Oh, no!  Acnologia, why didn’t you tell me that these women were injured?!  Plus, you know very well what could happen to them and us, if they were to be found.  Hurry, I must treat their wounds as quickly as possible.”  He began to move about, getting all the supplies he needed to help the women.

 

**~*Time Skip- A Few Hours Later*~**

 

Healer stepped away from the two mats, with the women laying atop them.  Going over to the pitcher of clean water to wash his hands of the dirt and grime of the injuries the women had suffered, he turned to me with questions clearly written on his face.  “So, are you going to tell me what happened?  How you met these women?  Why they are here?  And what you plan to do with them?  Along with who they are?”  He tilted his head at me, squinted his already narrow eyes, and let out a sigh of what could be considered defeat.

 I looked at Healer, then to the women resting peacefully, then to him.  I opened my mouth to respond but the spirit beat me to it.  “Sir, if I may?”  Healer gave a nod of consent, and the spirit continued, “As you well know of the Dragon War going on, the three women were at the temple, of the Zodiac, cleaning and organizing the offerings.  Anna Heartfillia, the blonde haired woman, is a Celestial Spirit mage, high priestess of the Zodiac.  The blue haired woman is Vivienne McGarden, Solid Script mage and head scribe of Osiris.  And the brunette, Caroline Alberona, Card Mage and priestess of the temple of Fortuna.

“As for what happened, a dragon gave a roar over the city and brought down most if not all of the structures surrounding the women, and toppling over some supportive pillars.  This man came to save them, after hearing Anna call out for help.  And I’m certain you know why they are here in the first place.  They were injured by the falling buildings.”  The spirit gave a sigh, and shook his head, as if he were saying that Healer was an idiot.  “And, before you ask, I’m Leo, leader of the twelve Zodiacs, and the right hand of the Celestial Spirit King.”  He looked at the women that were now cleaned of their injuries and sleeping, nodded his head, looked at me then to Healer, gave a nod of thanks and in the blink of an eye, he was gone.  The only thing left of him was the faint golden glow of his exit.

 

**~*Celestial Spirit World*~**

 

**(Leo’s Point of View)**

 

No sooner than I sat down the Spirit King and his grand booming voice asked, “How did everything go?  Is everything in place and ready to go?” 

At his voice I looked up, and gave him a nod.  Glancing around the table, I noticed that there were representatives for the major and minor deities of magic.  Along with the spirits of dragons, the ones who are tolerant of humans.  But the most shocking sight of them all, was the sight of the dark wizard, Zeref Dragneel.


End file.
